AMD begins shipping 1.1Ghz Athlon

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) began shipping its 1.1Ghz Athlon processor yesterday, and eight PC makers, including Gateway and Time, immediately began taking orders for systems featuring the chip.

The announcement came as Intel announced a recall of its 1.13Ghz Pentium III processors because of a flaw.

More than 10 original equipment manufacturers, including Compaq, Fujitsu, Hewlett Packard (HP) and IBM, said they plan to provide PCs powered by the chip, while Gateway, Time, Caliber, Micro Express, Mitsuba, SPC, Time, U-Tron and Xi began taking orders for systems.

Compaq plans to enhance its Presario 7000 consumer series with the faster processor, while HP will use the chip in its HP Pavillion home PCs.

"By supplying the highest performing PC processors in volume, AMD has reshaped the performance segment of the market, which now extends from 800Mhz to 1.1Ghz," said Rob Herb, executive vice president at AMD.

AMD is also working on developing Athlon-based chips for notebooks, and plans to launch mobile Athlon and Duron chips before the end of the year.

But Rob Enderle, an analyst at Giga Information Group, said AMD's fanfare regarding the shipment was not the most exciting announcement in history.

"It's like the runner who comes in last place since Intel announced the 2Ghz and 1.4Ghz chip for the Pentium 4 last week."